1. Field
Embodiments of the present inventive concepts relate to methods for fabricating semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fabrication of semiconductor-based transistor devices, it is commonplace for many photo masks to be used for the various required etching steps. However, with increased integration of semiconductor devices, the number of required etching steps is increasing, as is the depth of an etched feature relative to its width. Accordingly, the resulting processing variation can increase by a proportional amount. In order to minimize processing variation, a hard mask process has recently been proposed to perform etching steps. More recently, in order to increase etching selectivity, a metal hard mask has also been introduced.